


Technically

by AmidalasCouture



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:07:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21736561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmidalasCouture/pseuds/AmidalasCouture
Summary: After a storm Rebecca finds a mysterious box on the beach.
Kudos: 2
Collections: Yu-Gi-Oh! It's Time to G-G-G-Gift! [Mini-Exchange]





	Technically

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brennan4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brennan4/gifts).



The shore was silent after a night of howling storms and raging seas. Rebecca rode on her horse along the beach, overlooking the damage done to it. Much trash and broken things were washed on it, the white yellow sand grey like the clouds hanging above. She scoffed at the waste beneath her horse's feet, it made her blood boiling and her hands clenching the reign tighter.

The beach was part of her grandfather's property and subjected to his study. After all, a graveyard of ships was not far into the ocean. As such it was also Rebecca's territory and she was displeased by the pollution on their land. They were archeologists, but they wished that some human imprint was better not left on the earth.

It was amidst the trash that something caught her eye - a silver box glinting in the distance. 

\-----

With a sigh Rebecca fell backwards on to the chair. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, cleaning her glasses afterwards.

The heavy steps of her grandfather came closer. "You found something?" The aged professor asked with a smile on his face.

In front of Rebecca stood the unassuming metal box. It was solid and heavy as Rebecca herself experienced lifting the thing on the desk. The design was simple and unassuming, the only noticeable mark was the logo on top of it.

"It's a container from the Main Corporation. It uses their old logo, but based on the style of this thing I don't think it's a military container. The steel and workmanship is very high quality I think. If I am right, the content of this box should not have tasted any water at all. I'm curious."

Rebecca said, her eyes scanning the box again. Everything she said was true. 

"Then we should inform the Kaiba Corporation."

"Nah.", said Rebecca. "Let's dissect it first. It's the old Logo, before Seto Kaiba took over. Did he not abandon all their old production firms? Maybe they don't even know what's missing."

This box was just too tempting. Something in her heart told her she had to open it, no matter what. 

Her grandfather gently shook his head amused. The apple did not fall far from the tree after all. 

"When I'm gonna leave you alone with your treasure. I have a meeting to attend."

"Okay. I'm gonna tell you if I find something out."

______

The box was as sturdy as she thought it would be. Neither the hinges nor the lock budged a millimeter under her careful administrations. 

'This can only mean one thing'

Jumping up from her chair, she searched around for the precision laser cutter. It was a blessing she had a fully stocked laboratory at her disposal and a grandfather willing to lend her all the equipment. But then who would not help a mind as brilliant as hers, she was a certified genius with a cute face to boot!

The box, probably manufactured a decade or longer ago, gave in to the to the high end laser cutter. With a 'klirr', the metal lock fell on the desk. 

"Finally!", Rebecca exclaimed. The light in her eyes glinted like a child opening a Christmas present. With careful hands she opened the lid.

_____

The inside of the box was of the same dark steel as the outside. Inlaid in the steal was a 5x5x5 cube. The cube was made of a black, sleek looking material. There was seemingly no indention in it. Above it were the words 'The Ark' engraved.

"The Ark", read Rebecca aloud. Her forehead wrinkled together, while her mind was running miles upon miles. 

Something kept nagging her about the Ark and Kaiba Corporation. 

____

"Yugi Muto…", came it mumbling from the other side of the speaker.

"Yugi! Good to hear you! Well I know it's early, but I need your help. Do you know of an Ark? Well it's a cube, but it's called the Ark and I found it after the storm yesterday.."

Rebecca started to prattle on. For a moment there was no response from the other side. It seems Yugi's mind needed a minute or so to catch on.

"Rebecca wait! It's 3am here." His voice was thick with sleep still but at least he sounded a bit more awake. Polite as ever, he did not curse at her.

"Oh. Sorry. But it's really important. I mean I don't wanna blow my grandpa's lab up - again.."

"It's fine. Just slow down."

"So yesterday there was a pretty heavy storm. I went out in the morning today to see what was washed up, you know sometimes you can find some interesting stuff between the trash. This time I found a box with the old Kaiba Corporation Logo. You know back when they did weapons and military equipment. I brought it back to the lab and opened it."

"You opened it? Rebecca are you crazy? It could have been a bomb or toxic or.."

A blush appeared on Rebecca's face, it's warmth spread from her neck upwards to her cheeks at being scolded like a child.

"I know what I am doing. I am the one who finished college already."

"At least I did not set my grandfather's shop on fire accidentally."

"It doesn't matter now. Just answer my questions and you can go back to sleep."

"Thanks for the consideration…"

"So Yugi, I opened this box and in there was just a black cube. I have not taken it out in case it's really a bomb. But I don't think so. The label called it the Ark. And well the Ark saved humans in the Bible. But I wanted to call you cause something in the back of my mind told me you would have a clue."

"The Ark you say?"

"Yeah. Does it ring a bell?"

"Remember when we told you about Battle City? How we were abducted by Gozaburu and Noah Kaiba? The later used an Ark as a card. If it's connected to that, I think you should just give this box to Mokuba and Seto. It's safer."

____

Rebecca put the phone down besides the box, leaning in to the backrest of her chair.

"Yugi knows me bad if he really thinks I would give this up." 

She grinned, although she did not mind so much the worrying of Yugi. What could happen after all? 

Stretching her body, she got back to work. Carefully she took out the Ark from the box. There were no seams on the little cube, it's black luster hinting at a perfect cube. Could the Ark really be linked to Gozaburou and Noah Kaiba? What did it hold?

The surface of the cube felt smooth through the gloves on Rebecca's hand. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when suddenly her finger dipped in a bit.

A button!

If not by inspecting it with her hands, she might have missed it. 

"Boot up sequence initialised. Starting to load conscious. Mapping the virtual neurons...Please wait.."

The mechanical voice resounded from the little cube in her hands. It did not sound as smooth as today's voices but certainly at the peak of the time it was manufactured.

'Interesting', thought Rebecca. She put the Ark back down on her desk and stepped a bit back. Her eyes did not leave the Ark who was darker than the night.

  
  


"Finished mapping the neurons. Building the model for visualisation…"

___

It took awhile for the computer inside the Ark to finish it's task. In this time Rebecca had hurriedly grabbed her pen and paper, taking notes of everything that happened. 

"Finalised Inilisation. Start Visualization."

From the cube appeared a blue light. Like the visual processors of her duel disk, an image formed. Instead of a duel monster, a boy around ten years appeared. His green hair covered the top of his ears. He was dressed in a white outfit with some minor applications.

There was a fierceness in his eyes.

"You are not Mokuba.", the voice said.

"Congrats for stating the obvious. I'm guessing you are Noah?"

Noah harumpfed. His eyes were taking in the surroundings. Rebecca was really curious, since neither sensors nor the output source could be seen on the black cube. If she were not afraid of loosing data, her hands would itch to take the little thing apart.

Like a brat Noah then spoke "I wanna see my brother."

'And I want a Nobel prize. But it is not that easy.'

"I can contact your brother after you answered some questions of mine."

"Then I will just contact him myself."

A smug smile appeared on Rebecca's lips. "This laboratory is shielded from outside networks. The network we use in this laboratory has no connection to the internet."

"So you kidnapped me."

"You are very rude accusing a lady like me of something unsavory like this. If it were not for me, you would be lying amongst dirt still! See how the seagulls would boot you up!"

Dry, Noah just responded. "I see no lady."

His image faded then. The mechanical voice of the cube spoke up again.

"Shutting down…"

Rebecca let out an angry scream. "Prick!" 

She should have known. After all Noah was a Kaiba.

_____

"You again.", Noah commented. 

"Yep, wonderful me. You know I can just boot you up again if you shut down."

"I have noticed."

"I am also very patient." - Which was a lie, but Noah did not know that. "So either we can play this game like a broken record or you just answer me some questions."

"What if I alter my code to make it unable for you."

Rebecca's eyes squinted. She contemplated for a second.

"Then do it. There are three possibilities. I have concluded that this is the very core of your being, a back up that survived the explosion. So, one - You can alter your code to disable the power button. In which case you are inaccessible for me, but can boot up at will. Two - You can alter your code, but you can't boot up at will which would basically kill your existence. Third - You are bluffing and can't change that part of your code."

There was a silence for a moment. The anger in Noah's eyes seemed lifelike.

"You are smart." He says.

"So I have been told."

"I will answer your questions if you can defeat me in a Duel Monster game. If not you leave me alone " 

Grand mistake, but it helped Rebecca. A smile graced her lips. 

"Nothing easier than that."

___

"It's over, I won." 

Rebecca grinned from ear to ear. Noah on the other hand seemed grumpy.

"I demand a retry."

"You can have that after you answer my questions."

"One question. For another you need to defeat me again and I won't make it easy for you next time."

"You altered the deal."

"Pray that I don't alter it further."

"You like Star Wars?"

"Yes."

"So to my question…"

"You already asked one."

"You just don't want admit defeat by me."

______

Rebecca doesn't know how many duels they have played. It's been a day or so since they started and except for sleep, they did not pause much.

This time however, there was something different. Noah won.

"See I'm better than you.", he chimed in a happy tune.

'What a Kaiba..', thought Rebecca. She righted her glasses.

"So, I have to leave you now.", she said detached. Through the duels she had already planned what she would do, if this happened. Even if she was the American champion and a genius - maybe because she was as smart as she was, she knew at some point she would brick. Some duels are meant to be lost.

"No, don't go." There was uneasiness in Noah's eyes. He did not want to let go. "You are not so bad. Instead you need to answer one of my questions."

"Sure."

"How did you know about me?"

"It was coincidence that I found you. But my friends, Yugi, Thea, Joey and the rest, they met you."

"You know Yugi?"

"Defeat me again and I tell you."

___

The win and looses evened out over time. Noah was smart and adapted his strategy, he learned fast how to duel genuinely.

Rebecca had told him many things, how her grandfather and Yugi's grandfather were friends, about her career and her duels. She learned more about Noah, the things he liked and missed. 

"It tastes the same, yet not. Digital food. I calibrated the program so far that it's even better - it's easier to just activate the right synapses than to actually cook, you know. At least for me. But it's not the same. I know it's fake."

Rebecca looked at him, she was sleepy and laid back on the couch. In her lap was the arc. It was warm from the warmth of her hand. This time they did not duel, they just talked.

"Not knowing would make it better, huh."

"Maybe. Also I miss real heat. The one that warms the soul and not just the body."

"Could you not try to quarantine your memories?" She yawned, it was already late into the night.

"Maybe.", be looked uncertain, afraid.

"Then maybe it's time to notify Kaiba."

  
  
  


____

  
  


Notifying Kaiba is harder than thought. That's until she pulls her trump card. 

"Yuuuugi.", she called him in her sweetest voice. This time she made sure to call him at a reasonable time.

"Rebecca. Uh..How did it work out.", from the tone of his voice she guessed that he knew she called for something.

"Great. I met Noah and he is nicer than you guys made him sound. I want to talk to Kaiba, but his secretary is blocking me like no tomorrow. Do you have his personal number or something?"

"It's Noah? Thats good, kinda. I can try to reach Kaiba. He has been trying to challenge me to a duel."

"Right, you defeated the Pharaoh. So, you are the King of Games."

"Yeah, next time Pegasus should skip the title. I swear it brought me more trouble than good. Well at least he owes me to at least revue my game idea.You should try it when you come over for Noah."

"Sure."

_____

The train came to a halt with a screech. Rebecca did not have to search long for Yugi. Even back when the boy was the same height as her, his hair stood out the most. Now Yugi gained some inches and with the same trademark Mutou hairdo was hard to overlook.

Most people would think he looked more like the Pharaoh. But then again most could not distinguish them to begin with. Rebecca had always been different, on glance and she could at least count ten differences. And this had nothing to do with the teenage crush she had on him in the past. 

She still sped up and crushed him in a hug for the old times sake but now he was sturdy enough to withstand the impact.

"Yugi!" 

Yugi groaned a bit on the impact. 

"Rebecca, hey."

"Let's go, Kaiba is awaiting us."

She did not care about the arrogant asshole but meeting him might mean a body for Noah and for that she did not want to waste any time.

_____

It's Mokuba and Seto awaiting them. 

"Finally got the guts to accept my challenge, eh?", sneered the latter.

Rebecca could see the annoyance blooming on Yugi's face. Yeah, Kaiba was the same ass as always.

"Actually, we are here for this."

Holding out the cube, Rebecca smiled. "I found Noah's consciousness. He is your brother, right?"

"He is not…" Seto started but his voice was drowned out by Mokuba.

"Finally! He promised there would be a way!"

"Yeah, he said you would make him a body."

She did not look at Seto, but at Mokuba, who kinda had a sheepish look on his face.

"Well, I kinda already made one prototype. It's not yet perfect…."

____

Perfection came with time. For a prototype, the mechanical body looked amazingly human. 

'It's in the way it moved.', Rebecca thought. 

With Noah controlling it, it was lifelike and human, no matter that some seems were visible or the skin replica was a bit off still. 

His fingers weren't clumsy anymore as he moved the pieces of the board game. It was a simplified non digital version of the game Yugi created.

Him and Thea, as well as Joey, Tristan and Bakura sat together with Rebecca and Noah at Yugi's place. 

The biggest smile of them all had a Rebecca on her face. She practically leaned on Noah as she commented on what move to make next, not minding that the person next to her was a cold shell at the moment. 

It did not matter. Her crush made her warm enough.

  
  
  



End file.
